JJ Rosen: Mobile devices present challenges for employers

Jul. 28, 2013

Written by

JJ Rosen

For The Tennessean

Not unlike us humans, our smartphones (and for that matter, all of our mobile devices) are swamped juggling both our work and personal lives. This is presenting some interesting challenges for employers and employees alike.

Multiple research reports show that almost 70 percent of employees use their personal smartphones and tablets to access corporate data and applications. Despite resistance from IT departments, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is clearly what employees want, allowing them to manage work, home and fun on their personally owned mobile devices.

From the employer side, BYOD has both pros and cons. On the upside, employers can save tons of money on mobile hardware and services while enhancing productivity by giving employees the convenience to work more from anywhere at any time. However, this productivity boost and savings comes at the expense of security and control. Allowing personally owned devices on multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) to access corporate networks and data can be a security, operational and, in some cases, compliance nightmare.

So what is a CIO or any business owner to do?

One popular way to manage company mobile devices is to implement Mobile Device Management software (MDM). MDM allows a company to manage all aspects of an employee’s mobile device remotely. While this is a great option for company-owned devices, it can be a bit awkward and downright intrusive on employee-owned devices.

Fortunately, there is a new breed of tools coming out that support a hybrid approach, keeping both employees and employers happy with respect to the BYOD movement.

This new approach focuses on managing and securing just the applications and data on your phone rather than the phone itself. So instead of your IT department managing your entire device, it is able to manage only the applications and data that the company really cares about.

There is little need for a company to manage your Words with Friends app in order to allow you to use corporate email or SharePoint or work on a spreadsheet on the company’s network.

Look for these new Mobile Application Management solutions (MAMs) to make the BYOD approach increasingly popular over the next couple of years.

While there is no current market leader or industry standard in the BYOD market, major players like Symantec, AirWatch, Citrix and many other smaller companies are all vying to establish a foothold around BYOD. This competition will eventually create a win-win for employees and employers by solving the unique challenges of your phone’s identity crisis in the workplace.

JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, an IT consulting, programming, and web development firm located in Nashville. Visit Atiba Holdings online at Atiba.com or Cabedge.com.